I did not watch tonight’s debate, so I did not see this “live,” as it were. But one thing I can tell you is that I don’t give an expletive about what Newt Gingrich does or doesn’t do with his johnson. And I must say, as a habitual hater of CNN — a most desperate network that seems to exude a clueless desperation with every high-profile opportunity it can get — I was absolutely unsurprised to find that John King, a man who makes Chuck Todd appear a paragon of journalistic substance and integrity, decided to start off the festivities with the most frivolous, degrading question imaginable.
I’ve also read (and now seen/heard) that Mitt Romney got a bunch of boos for this answer — and, yes, this is a blog deeply indebted to Talking Poins Memo:
It’s a weird tact for Romney to take. I know I’m biased (blah, blah, blah; I’ve said this before) but I honestly don’t think this is going to come off well with a general audience, this “I won’t apologize for my success” business. I doubt that many Americans begrudge someone for their success — I certainly don’t — but the question is whether or not they’re willing to recognize that the deck is stacked against the majority who are not quite so lucky; and whether or not the candidate is seeking to remedy this situation.
In the abstract, this need not be an issue that the Republican candidate is unwilling to discuss in honest and compassionate terms. But for whatever reason, Mitt Romney seems almost fundamentally incapable of at once owning his enormous success and empathizing with the millions of people who don’t sit atop equivalent riches. When he deals with this issue, he comes off as either scared (as he did here with the “Democrats will be mean to me” shtick) or, more frequently, petulant and defensive.
He should take this opportunity to pivot to a talking point about how he wants all Americans to achieve as he has, and how he knows the best way to do it is to unleash their potential by allowing them to compete in a truly unfettered free-market, unencumbered by Big Government. It’s a line that worked with an almost magical efficiency for Ronald Reagan; and I see no reason why it can’t, if delivered with sufficient sincerity (a big “if” as concerns Mitt), similarly flatter swing-voters. I think, eventually, he’s going to figure this out — but it speaks to the campaign’s semi-complacency, their serene confidence in their eventual victory, that Team Romney hasn’t yet bridged this gap.
